ORIGINAL: Pglasgow
ORIGINAL: gleason.chapman
Amen for calling the company and getting the facts out. My brother had trouble with 348G aerotip PB Platimum this past hunting season, it fragmented at 60 yards on a buck, fragments were on the ground along with bone, hide and hair.
I know some one who uses them for elk. 110 grains of 2f 777. He says both he and his brother shoots and they've both layed elk flat with them. He said in both cases they found the PB fully expanded (like a quarter) on the far side. The vital organs just jelly. He's sold on them, he is also a member here.
I have read on the old Muzzleloaderforum.com when they did inlines that some elk camps outlawed PBs. I don't know which ones in which states, but that is what I recall. I am not saying that they don't kill elk, I am just saying "there elk camps didn't want their hunters shooting with them". I know 3 years ago when I did my research on the Internet I searched for "Power Belt Outlawed" or PowerBelt discouraged from use. I never found a document that said it in the "Camp Code", but it must exist if they felt that strongly about it. If you read what Toby Bridges (author ofmany books and articles on MLing)says about them, I wouldn't say he is a big fan either:
http://www.hpmuzzleloading.com/feedback.html
This is what he says:
"I have never hidden my feelings for "Power Belt" Bullets. I don't like them. Truth is, I simply don't want to hunt in any state where today's modern muzzleloading hunter is denied the opportunity to hunt with a well designed saboted bullet. And any game department that permits the use of a bullet that performs as poorly as the "Power Belt", but prohibits the use of a saboted bullet like the Barnes TMZ...Precision Rifle "Dead Center" ...Hornady "SST"...and other similar performance-proven bullet designs means that game department is totally in the dark about muzzleloader performance on big game."
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What I don't like about the "Power Belt" Bullet is that they fragment horribly when driven into a big game animal. And there are several hundred of you who visit this site that I don't have to tell that to...you've already shared with me your experiences with these bullets...and they are basically the same as what I have experienced. I can remember one big doe I took with the 295-grain "Power Belt" a couple of years back. The deer walked out into the field about 70 yards away. I was taking the deer for a friend who wanted one for the freezer, and decided to wait until the old doe was perfectly broadside, placing the shot just a bit back from the shoulder. I figured the big bullet would punch through the rib cage, take out both lungs, then probably punch out the other side - eliminating as much meat loss as possible."[/align]
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The deer cooperated and stood perfectly square to my stand. The rifle and load hit exactly where I wanted. And the deer dropped where it stood. Great performance? Hardly! That bullet had literally exploded before ever getting into the lungs. And fragments, some fairly large, found their way into the backstrap and opposite shoulder. When that deer was skinned, nearly 1/4th of all edible meat was a total loss. And the largest piece of the bullet recovered weighed no more than 40 grains. And I have heard of similar bullet failure from many HPML viewers."
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So I am not alone in these fragmentation issues. I hope that helps balance the thinking on PBs for elk. There are better bullets in my mind. Toby mentions them in his article.
Chap Gleason